Recently published Ornithological Works. 357 



The aim of the author of tliis useful work has been, in the 

 first place, to supply naturalists with a modern standard for 

 the nomenclature of colours, on the principle of Syme's 

 edition of Werner's well-known treatise. His judicious 

 remarks on the principles of colour, and on the really essential 

 pigments for producing an infinity of variations, are illus- 

 trated by ten hand-coloured plates, followed by a vocabulary 

 in seven languages. Obstacles will doubtless present them- 

 selves and hinder a complete or immediate conformity with 

 the standard, but the principle is undoubtedly a good one. 

 As regards the second part, with its glossary of technical 

 terms used in descriptive ornithology and its six outline 

 plates showing the proper names for the various parts of a 

 bird's body, the various shapes of feathers and and their 

 names, and a similar scheme for eggs, nothing so good has 

 hitherto been brought before us, and every ornithologist 

 should use it. There is also a table for the conversion of the 

 various metrical systems, and altogether the book is a mine 

 of information. 



82. Salvadori's '^ List of Italian Birds' 



[Elenco degii Uccelli Italian!, compilato da Tommaso Salvadori, 

 Genova: 1887. 8vo. 332 pp.] 



Count Salvadori's list of Italian birds is prepared veiy 

 much after the fashion of our own list, which, as he tells 

 us, gave him the idea of compiling the present publica- 

 tion. After the name of each species in Latin and Italian^ 

 the principal synonyms referring to the Italian avifauna are 

 given, the meaning of the scientific name is explained, and a 

 few short sentences are added concerning the time and place 

 of the bird^s occurrence within the boundaries of Italy. But 

 Count Salvadori does not extend these boundaries quite so 

 far as Prof. Giglioli, who, in his '^ Avifauna Italica/ included 

 Dalmatia, nor does he adopt some of that author's rather 

 doubtful species. Eleven of these are rejected from the list 

 of veritable Italian birds, and are included in the present 

 volume along with others, but in brackets, to show that they 

 have been at one time accredited to the Italian list. 



SER. V. VOL. V. 2 b 



